Springfield named All-America City

Date: 7/9/2012

July 9, 2012

By G. Michael Dobbs

news@thereminder.com

SPRINGFIELD — Springfield has been named an All-America City for the first time in its history and was chosen because of how education and business officials are promoting literacy in the city.

Members of the city's Reading Success by the Fourth Grade initiative were informed last week the National Civic League had chosen 14 designees this year for the honor from 124 applicants and Springfield was among them, Sally Fuller of the initiative told Reminder Publications.

The application was submitted by a community coalition that included the Office of the Mayor, City Council and School Committee, the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, the Irene E. & George A. Davis Foundation, the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council and United Way of the Pioneer Valley.

"Springfield is working diligently on the Reading Success by Fourth Grade campaign because we know that ensuring that children are proficient readers by the time they enter fourth grade is a strategic point of intervention for addressing education, community health, public safety, poverty and economic development goals. In addition to being named an All-America City, Springfield was also named a Community Solutions PaceSetter by the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading for its exemplary leadership and innovation in addressing the vexing challenges that keep many low-income students from learning to read proficiently," Mayor Domenic Sarno said.

Fuller explained that in past years the National Civic League had chosen its annual designees on the basis of an overall presentation about a community. This year, though, the group decided to focus on a specific effort being made in municipalities nation-wide: the effort to have children reading at their grade level.

Fuller explained that in Springfield's case, because this literacy effort had been in place several years, the National Civic League asked the initiative to submit its application three months early so other communities could see the local plan.

"It was used as a national model," Fuller said.

She said the All-America City competition was "a thorough process" in which the cities also evaluated each other. The result has been very beneficial as that evaluation has created a "a national learning community out of the award."

Although there is no cash prize that goes along with the award, Fuller said the accomplishment is "much more than a designation, much more than a plaque, much more than a sign you can put up at the city limits."

She believes the award will assist the city's efforts and will allow it to "set benchmarks and build capacities" to judge its process.

"Everyone has a piece in this work and we will use this momentum to bring more people to the table," Fuller said.

She noted the National Civic League will look at the 14 designees again in 2015 to 2016 to see how many of the communities met their goals.